Haile Comeau gets a big plate of turkey and trimmings at Woodman Park School in Dover Tuesday as the first grade holds its annual Thanksgiving feast. (John Huff/Staff photographer)

DOVER — It might have been the cutest Thanksgiving feast in the state.

Students in first-grade classes at Woodman Park Elementary School celebrated the American tradition Tuesday by dressing as Pilgrims and Native Americans. They shared turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, cornbread, carrots and pudding in the school cafeteria.

Parents of the children were invited to come. The first-graders sat in rows and performed Thanksgiving songs for their mothers and fathers before eating.

“We are thankful, we are thankful, for our friends, for our friends. On Thanksgiving Day you will hear us say thank you, thank you,” the children sang.

Preparations for the feast began weeks ago, according to first-grade teacher Sharon Shea. She has been employed by the school district for 25 years and is instrumental in keeping the annual tradition alive.

She explained all of the work students put into making the feast special, including creating friendship necklaces out of macaroni, collars, vests, Pilgrim hats and Native American headdresses.

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John Huff/Staff photographer
Erikson Brown participates in Thanksgiving themed songs at Woodman Park School in Dover Tuesday as the first grade holds its annual Thanksgiving feast.

“We start out by reading the kids nonfiction books about Pilgrims and Native Americans,” Shea said. “We talked about the struggles they had.”

On Monday, Shea and all of the other first-grade teachers had their students spend an hour in the cafeteria preparing the food they ate Tuesday. The children peeled potatoes and carrots. They mixed pudding and cornbread batter.

A lesson in the labor it takes to put on such a big meal hit home for the students, who learned what it was like to be a Pilgrim child through the book “Sarah Morton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl.”

“We say to them it was hard work so these are some of the things they had to do. They learned about the chores children did,” first-grade teacher Barbara Soris said.

Soris said Morton's story about tending the fire, standing through breakfast because her family only had two stools, tending goats, feeding chickens, cleaning pots, pounding spices, helping cook dinner and taking lessons from her father exhausted the first-graders just hearing about it.

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John Huff/Staff photographer
Mya Gordon grabs a big plate of turkey and trimmings at Woodman Park School in Dover Tuesday as the first grade holds its annual Thanksgiving feast.

“They were astounded by the fact children could not speak until they were spoken to,” Soris said. “It was just how life was.”

The students enjoyed the exercise.

“Learning about Thanksgiving was really good,” said Ne-Que Flowers, 6, who was responsible for helping with the cornbread Monday.

Quinlan Dickey, 6, made pudding. He said his favorite part of the Thanksgiving story was learning about how Pilgrims used fish as crop fertilizer.

Dickey's mother, Tara, said little Quinlan has been “so excited” for the feast.

“He has been asking if we would come see him. He is very proud, he wouldn't even sing the songs for us because he said we had to come,” she said.

Learning about the country's heritage using social studies, math, art and music is a basic goal of the feast. But the most important part about the day is teaching children about friendship and being thankful, according to teachers and parents.

“The best part is we can all be together as a first-grade family,” Shea said.

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John Huff/Staff Photographer
Woodman Park School first-graders dressed as Pilgrims and Native Americans for the school's annual Thanksgiving feast on Tuesday.